Michael Jackson memorial service upstaged by Paris's tears

Paris Jackson, surrounded by her famous aunts and uncles, at the end of her father Michael Jackson's memorial service.

"Ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine. And I just wanted to say I love him so much." -Paris Jackson

For two-plus hours at the Staples Center, the friends and family of Michael Jackson had tried to turn his memorial service into a defense argument for the reputation of the late King of Pop. But it was only at the very end, when Jackson's tearful 11-year-old daughter Paris was nudged to center stage by her aunt Janet that the event seemed less a cynical, manipulative affair than a moment of real, painful, unfortunately public grief.

"Maybe now, Michael, they will leave you alone," Jackson's brother Marlon had said moments before Paris' brief, tragic moment at center stage, and that was the ceremony's theme.

One after another, the Gloved One's loved ones stepped forward to make their case for Jackson as a misunderstood, harmless sweetheart who wanted only to heal the world.

"Wasn't nothing strange about your daddy," Reverend Al Sharpton told Paris and her two brothers, who were seated in the front row. "It was strange what your daddy had to deal with."

Lakers Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, no doubt aware of the custody battles brewing over the kids, argued that they could have no better guardian than Jackson's mother Katherine.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, alluding to the accusations of child molestation that dogged Jackson in his later years, said, to big applause from the crowd, "We know people are innocent until proven otherwise."

And each speaker tried to tell human-scale stories about a man whose life experience was usually so far removed from that of his fans. Magic joked about a time when he caught Jackson eating Kentucky Fried Chicken. Marlon recalled trying to enjoy the Three Stooges with his little brother before they had to go to rehearsal. Brooke Shields said that when Jackson began wearing one sequined glove, she asked, bluntly, "What's up with the glove?"

Some of the eulogies felt self-aggrandizing, while others were more heartfelt. Particularly genuine was Shields, who noted that she and Jackson were close "because we both understood what it was like to be in the spotlight from a very young age."

But the ceremony was so calculated at other times -- notably a medley of songs by the backup singers from the London concerts Jackson never got to do -- that it wasn't until Paris was nudged to the mic that it became possible to set all the sideshow aspects of Jackson's life aside and see him as his loved ones so obviously wanted us to.

And yet that moment was so intensely personal that it made all that came before -- the speeches, and the musical performances both great (Stevie Wonder) and over-the-top (Mariah Carey), and, especially the glut of media coverage ever since Jackson's sudden death on June 25 -- seem even more ghoulish in its excess.

In the hours leading up to the service, cable news was in the midst of its usual time-killing-via-carpet-bomb approach to coverage. We heard one commenter after another -- including loud self-promoters like Stephen A. Smith and Geraldo Rivera -- try to sum up Jackson's complicated life and death as we were treated to fetishized helicopter shots of the motorcade traveling from the cemetary to the Staples Center.

But even the TV people had occasional moments of clarity about the glut of the coverage, and the funeral.

"I'm staggered by the fact that there's so much news coverage," Nancy Giles said on NBC, "that everything has stopped to mark the passage of this famous musician."

As the start of the funeral approached, Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith mused, "I wonder if people aren't just going to get to the point where they're like, 'Wow, could you just let the man rest in peace?'"

That's certainly what the Jackson family hoped for. But given our culture's morbid fascination with celebrity and scandal, no amount of storytelling or pleading -- nor even a child's tears for the loss of her father -- will calm this feeding frenzy anytime soon.

As CBS' Katie Couric -- who seemed a bit mortified to be involved in the media pile-on by the service's end -- said, "The world seems fascinated with Michael Jackson and his legacy."

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at asepinwall@starledger.com, or at 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, N.J. 07102-1200. Include your full name and hometown.